This GMT Diver May Be the Most Vintage New Watch You Can Buy

I haven’t seen a bracelet like this since the 1970s.

Published August 6, 2024

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Modernized vintage watches have been en vogue for at least a decade now, and some brands are better at crafting a retro watch than others.

Some brands will just throw some patina-colored lume on a dial and call it a day, while others put far more care into their vintage-inspired details. Vulcain definitely falls into the latter camp.

The resurrected brand, along with its sister brand Nivada Grenchen, has become known for crafting devastatingly accurate revivals of watches that bore its name half a century ago.

Unlike most Vulcain watches, the brand’s latest release isn’t actually a reissue of a vintage watch. In fact, it actually represents an entirely new watch style for the brand. But it’s so dedicated to mid-century styling that it still looks like one of the “most vintage” new watches you can buy.

Vulcain Nautique Skindiver GMT

$2,447 at Gioielleria Rosaspina

Vulcain’s First GMT Looks Straight Out of the 1960s

The new watch is a collab between Vulcain and a pair of Italian entities: retailer Gioielleria Rosaspina and watch YouTuber TOC. But this goes above and beyond your average watch brand collaboration.

The watch, dubbed the Vulcain Nautique Skindiver GMT, actually represents Vulcain’s first-ever GMT. Essentially, it’s a dual-time version of the brand’s historically accurate Nautique Skindiver dive watch, but there are quite a few changes.

The most obvious is that the watch is a GMT. The dual-time function is executed through an off-the-shelf Soprod automatic movement and displayed via a red arrow-tipped GMT hand and a bidirectional black ceramic bezel filled with gilt numerals.

The hands and framed date window are gilt as well, offering up a cohesive look that plays heavily into the vintage vibes. The dial is matte black with a granular texture, while the indices wisely avoid the allure of fauxtina and instead go for white lume. As a result, this looks more like how a watch from the 1960s would have looked when new rather than something that’s been artificially aged.

More vintage touches include the large unprotected crown, the generously domed sapphire crystal and the compact case diameter of 38mm. But what really sets the watch apart from every other vintage-styled modern watch is the bracelet.

The Vulcain Nautique Skindiver GMT debuts a brand-new bracelet, and quite frankly, no one makes bracelets like this anymore. Its long, claw-shaped single links most closely resemble the “lobster” bracelets found on some Omega, Zenith and Seiko watches from the 1970s. It’s a unique look for a contemporary watch and makes this thing look like a time capsule.

vulcain watch bracelet — The lobster-style bracelet is quite rare for a modern watch.

Balancing the bracelet, however, is the clasp, which is a far more modern affair thanks to its dual-pusher secure opening and its built-in on-the-fly micro-adjustment system. These features greatly increase functionality without changing the overall vintage aesthetic of the watch.

Pricing and Availability

This watch is both Vulcain’s first GMT and marks the debut of a new bracelet, so it seems almost guaranteed that the brand will produce non-limited versions of the Skindiver Nautique GMT in other colorways in the future.

But for now, this is the only version available, and they aren’t exactly easy to get. Just 85 are being produced in total, and the watch is available exclusively through Italian retailer and collaborator Gioielleria Rosaspina.

The Vulcain Skindiver Nautique GMT can be ordered online through Rosaspina’s website and is priced at €2,240 (~$2,447).